1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a SATA (Serial AT Attachment) interface connector and, more particularly, to such a SATA interface connector, which keeps the conductors of the SATA interface cable positively connected to the conductors in the connector body without solder.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional bus line connector for use in computer. This design of bus line connector requires much installation space because the bus line 11 is comprised of more than seventy signal lines arranged in parallel. Therefore, various Serial ATA interface connectors are developed. Serial ATA is the next generation storage interface standard for personal computer designed to replace the Ultra ATA parallel interconnect cable (80 conductors) with a much smaller, more flexible serial design. FIGS. 2A and 2B show a Serial ATA interface connector according the prior art. According to this design, the Serial ATA interface connector comprises a connector body 13, a plurality of terminals 14 mounted in the connector body 13, a Serial ATA interface cable 15 having conductors 151 respectively soldered to the terminals 14, and an electrically insulative outer shell 16 molded on a part of the connector body 13 and a part of the Serial ATA interface cable 15. This design of Serial ATA interface connector has drawbacks as follows:
1. It consumes much time to solder the conductors 151 to the terminals 14 by labor. When soldering the conductors 151 to the terminals 14, toxic waste gas is produced.
2. The conductors 151 are thin wire conductors and the two conductors on the middle are commonly soldered to a common terminal, improper soldering affects the electric properties of the connector.
3. When molding the electrically insulative outer shell 16, the molding pressure may distort the conductors 151, resulting in a short circuit.
FIG. 2C shows a prior art Serial ATA interface connector similar to that shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B with the exception that the electrically insulative outer shell according to this design is formed of two symmetrical shell members 17 and 18 detachably fastened together. One shell member 17 has locating holes 171. The other shell member 18 has hooks (not shown) respectively hooked in the locating holes 171. Because the locating holes 171 are exposed to the outside, they obstruct the sense of beauty of the connector.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a Serial ATA interface connector that eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks.